Search Results for: Tempo Latino Festival
Adrian Suarez Composer, arranger, trombonist and percussionist
Trombonist Adrian Suarez’s musical career began when he was very young at a music school.
“From the age of five they put us to study theory and solfège, and four years later I managed to get my hands on an instrument.”
However, once he was able to play an instrument, he took a break to dedicate himself to baseball. “It was at the age of 14 that an uncle took me to some Latin percussion lessons and soon after that I started with the trombone.”
On April 23, 1969, in Caracas, Venezuela, Adrian Suarez was born.
Excellent composer, arranger, trombonist, percussionist and researcher.
Bachelor of Arts (UCV-1994), he studied music, trombone and composition at the Escuela Superior José Ángel Lamas.
He also studied Afro-Caribbean percussion and Afro-Venezuelan percussion (1985-1990). He was a researcher and advisor for the foundation of ethnomusicology and folklore, fundef, between 1993 and 1995.
He studied composition at the Cátedra Latinoamericana de Composición Antonio Estévez, with maestro Juan Carlos Núñez from 1994 to 1996. In Germany he obtained a master’s degree in composition.
As a professional, he has collaborated with the Papel Musical Magazine (1992); he has been a researcher and advisor for the Foundation of Ethnomusicology and Folklore (FUNDEF) under the direction of Dr. Isabel Aretz; and he has worked as a documentary advisor for visual arts exhibitions.
He studied composition with Helmut Lachenmann and Marco Stroppa. In 2001 he received his master’s degree in composition from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany.
Since 1999 he has been a founding member of the international group of composers Aspect, based in Germany, and since 1991 of the Musikós Association in Caracas. He participated in the Latin American Composition Chair Antonio Estévez, under the direction of Juan Carlos Núñez (1994-1996).
He has received numerous awards, including the Unique Prize of the Manuel Enrique Pérez Díaz National Composition Competition (CONAC, Caracas, 1998) for his work “Soledades”, “Hommâge à Octavio Paz”, for two guitars and harp, the Municipal Music Prize (Caracas, 2002 and 2017), the National Culture Prize (2010) as well as the Prize of the Ibero-American Composition Competition for Symphonic Band Ibermúsicas-Oaxaca (2016).
He has worked as author and director of musical-dramaturgical shows in Venezuela, including titles such as: “Lamas siempre” (1995), “Proyecto Música e Hipótesis Aleatorias” (1997), “Atavismos del Sol y de la luna” (2000), “Maithuna” (2009), “Watunna” (2010), “Meñé Ruwa, los dueños del canto” (2011) the first musical theater play in the continent for instrumental ensemble and two shamans and “La salsa es trombón” (2012, 2015, 2017).
He led a band integrated by a group of the best musicians of the salsa scene nationwide: Tuky Torres, on piano; Carlos Rodríguez, bass; Víctor Cardona, on timbal and bongo; Freddy Rivas, congas; Johan Muñoz, trombone; Eliel Rivero, trombone. Special guests included soneros Edgar Dolor Quijada, Reinaldo Torcat, as well as a group of batá drummers.
Creator of the Ensemble Lux Aeterna, dedicated to the interpretation of spiritual and sacred works of all times. He is also founder of the Akoustikos New Music Festival in 2009.
As a trombonist, he has cultivated popular music from all over the continent, with special emphasis on Venezuelan and Caribbean music. His work as a researcher, composer and performer has allowed him to take his work and music to several countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
“It won’t be a master class in history,” says Venezuelan musician and composer Adrián Suárez with a chuckle; in reality it is a musical show, with hints of theater and dance, that will show the public the evolution of the trombone, and its relationship with the salsa genre from prehistoric times to contemporary times.
Adrián Suárez brings sacred sounds and turns them into music.
Suárez won the Second Iberoamerican Composition Contest for Symphonic Band Ibermúsicas, in the Mexican city of Oaxaca, with his work Aerofanía, retumbos místicos para banda sinfónica.
Salsa is trombone, Suárez assures, “It is a beautiful show that is not only educational, but also seeks to inspire the audience through the values and feelings it promotes”.
The artist and researcher’s expectation is that his audience will be completely involved with the sound and ambience: “To completely move the energy, since it is not only music to dance to, it is to sit down and listen to it carefully”.
Víctor Porfirio Baloa Díaz, more commonly known as Porfi Baloa
Soneros Birthdays Party
Soneros Birthdays Party
Omara Portuondo, Ismael Rivera, Jimmy Bosch, and Luisito Carrión celebrate their birthdays this month
October is filled with talent and it’s that in this month a hurricane of brilliant artists of the Salsero genre was born, who have captivated us and have shown their Gift before hundreds of audiences around the world. These Latin Stars have bathed us in SABOR with their lyrics and infected with joy with their melodies. It for that, this month we celebrate their births and dance to the rhythm of the applause towards them. Happy Birthday, Soneros!
Omara Portuondo (October 29, 1930)
Omara was born in La Habana (Cuba). Her first encounter with music was at a very early age. Just as in any other Cuban home, the future singer and her siblings grew up with the songs which her parents, for lack of a gramophone, sang to them. Those melodies, some of which still form part of her repertoire, were young Omara’s informal introduction to the world of music.
She and her sister Haydee sang well-known American group “Los Loquibambla” and their style, a Cubanised version of the Bossa Nova with touches of American jazz, was known as “Feeling”. In their radio debut, Omara was introduced as “Miss Omara Brown, the girlfriend of Feeling”.
“Magia Negra” was her debut record released in 1959. It combined Cuban music with American jazz and included versions of “That Old Black Magic” and “Caravan”, by Duke Ellington. Later she joined one of Cuba’s most important orchestras, La Orchestra Aragón, with which she recorded several albums, such as the one she did with Adalberto Álvarez in 1984 and “Palabras and Desafíos” on which she was accompanied by Chucho Valdés.
However, Omara Portuondo catapulted to her well-earned fame was in the mid-1990s when she collaborated in the recording sessions for Buena Vista Social Club on which she sang “Veinte Años”.
She was the star of the third launching of the Buena Vista Social Club released in 2000 and she toured Europe, traveled to Japan, and performed in the USA and Canada.
Omara went back to the studio to record her second solo album “Flor de Amor” (World Circuit), which was produced by Nick Gold and Alê Siqueira, signals a change in direction in her career: it is an album marked by a more subtle sound and a richness of texture. Portuondo brought in a mixture of Cuban and Brazilian musicians for this album, and it is this factor which influences the particular style of the music.
Omara returned to Europe in 2004 to promote this album, performing at such illustrious venues as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Marble Hill House in London, Olympia in Paris and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. “Flor de Amor” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Tropical Record category and the 16th edition of the Billboard Latin Music Awards (2005); this album obtained the Tropical Record of the Year award.
Later, Omara released “Gracias”, the record that marks her sixtieth year in the music business and won the Latin Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Tropical Album. It was a very special night as Omara was there to receive the prize in person and she also presented one of the awards, the first time that a Cuban artist has done this. The album was also later nominated for a Grammy in the Best Tropical Latin Album category.
After touring with the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club in Europe during 2010, “the girlfriend of Feeling” released the latest recording, Omara & Chucho (Montuno Producciones) in spring 2011. 14 years after their last joint album, they reunite once again to continue unravelling the thread of their first joint project, and show us their talents in the simplest, most unclad manner on a context that enables them to lay emphasis on some of the features that been characteristic of their music at various stages in their careers.
Omara will also tour with the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club later in Europe and the U.S.
Ismael Rivera (October 5, 1931 – May 13, 1987)
Puerto Rican singer and songwriter contributed to the dissemination of the island’s native rhythms such as the Bomba and Plena, and he was one of the first standard-bearers of the Salsero movement of the decade, the reason for he was called “El Sonero Mayor” and also known for others by the nickname “Maelo”.
In 1952 he was hired as a singer for the Lito Peña’s Orquesta Panamericana with which he became known and reaped his first hits: “La vieja en camisa”, “La sazón de la abuela” and the most popular “El charlatán”, a song in Plena rhythm that was widely heard through the Puerto Rico’s local radio stations.
Two years later he left this group to join the Combo de Cortijo with whom he popularized “El bombón de Elena” by Rafael Cepeda Atiles, and as well as performed on Puerto Rican television in the “El Show del Mediodía”.
At the end of the ‘50s, they were presenting their shows at the prestigious New York club Palladium Ballroom, where they contributed to making popular the tropical rhythms imported from the island with great hits such as “El negro bembón”, “Maquinó Landera”, “Tuntuneco ”, and others.
Ismael Rivera’s triumphant career was interrupted in 1962 for paying four years under the laws of Puerto Rico for possession of narcotics. Then, after recovering his freedom, Ismael formed his musical ensemble “Los Cachimbos” and immersed himself in the nascent Salsero movement to which he contributed two classics such as “Dime por qué” y “Mi negrita me espera”.
In the mid-70s “El Sonero Mayor” became the ambassador of Salsa throughout America, working for the record label of the genre Fania, and triumphing with emblematic songs such as “De todas maneras rosas”.
In his facet as a composer, he wrote very notable pieces such as “Besito de Coco” (famous song by Celiz Cruz), “El incomprendido”, “Arrecotín, arrecotán”, “El que no sufre no vive”, y “Mi libertad eres tú among many others.
In his last years, he suffered a throat cancer that caused him to lose his voice and he died as a result of a heart attack. R.I.P MASTER!
Jimmy Bosch (October 18, 1959)
Jimmy Bosch was born in 1959 (New Jersey, U.S.). He is a world-renowned Trombonist, composer, singer, and bandleader in the world music genres. He has been performing professionally since age 13. Jimmy’s first two solo CDs, “Soneando Trombón” and “Salsa Dura” established him as the Ambassador of the Salsa Dura movement. He ignited this movement by combining old school quality salsa arrangements with a modern NY aggressive edge and socially conscious lyrics. “El Avión De La Salsa” demonstrates and solidifies his commitment to dancer centered music, while “A Millón” is the title of Jimmy’s 4th solo record released.
Appearing in over 100 recordings, Bosch “El Trombón Criollo de La Salsa” has garnered at least 10 Grammys and has toured with his orchestra, his sextet or as a solo artist, as well as with: Eddie Palmieri, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, Manny Oquendo y Libre, FANIA Allstars, and the list goes on.
Jimmy has been featured throughout the world in major venues and festivals, including; Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (NYC), Celebrate Brooklyn (NYC), Montreal Jazz (Canada), Madison Square Garden (NYC), Sydney Opera House (Australia), Barranquijazz (Colombia), El Poliedro and Teresa Careña (Venezuela), and many other important places.
Luisito Carrión (OCTOBER 26, 1962)
A native of Arecibo in Puerto Rico, Luisito Carrión has been singing since he was 13 years old. He began his career as a Salsa artist with the Orquesta Kafe, Orquesta La Nativa and Grupo Concepto Latino.
In his first performances, he sang along with Celia Cruz, Adalberto Santiago, and Santitos Colón. Later on, he was a member of Salsa Fever together with Julio “Gunda” Merced, were several hits come from: “Renta de Amor” and “Señores ahí va Julián”. Afterward, he joined the Bobby Valentín Orchestra, where he sang songs, such as: “El Señor de las Señoras”, “Ramos de flores”, “El Gigoló”, “Tributo de Cali” and “Como lo hago yo”. In his evolutionary process, Luisito joined the Orquesta Don Perignon where he sang “La Fuga” and later with the Sonora Porceña, where he performed songs, such as “Yaré” and “A Comer Lechón”.
In 1997, he recorded with Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound “Mi música 1997”. At the end of the 90s, Carrión began his career as a soloist with the record company MP Records with Julio “Gunda” Mercéd and Rafael Bodo Torres, which led to hits, such as: “Sin tu amor”, “La Chica Más Popular”, “Nadie Como Tú”, “Porque”, “Amiga Mía”, “Muriendo”, “Como Ave Sin Rumbo” and “Para Ser Real”. Nowadays, Luisito Carrión is one of the best Puerto Rico’s Soneros bringing on “Histeriaaaa…” in his fans.
Europe – July 2023
A walk through the history of Latin music in the United States
Latin music has been of great influence for singers in training and, without a doubt, marked the lives of its pioneers. Some born in Spanish-speaking countries and others with descent from these lands have not been able to put aside the flavor that has been inherited to them. There are those who affirm that these tropical and Caribbean rhythms are carried in the veins and it is very difficult to get rid of these roots.
The arrival of Latinos in the United States also implied the arrival of their customs and culture. Latin music is considered to be a large number of genres, including: salsa, merengue, bachata, bolero, bossa nova, reggaeton, rumba, ranchera, cumbia, tango, among others.
Latinamerican Festival at Nagoya in Golden Week
How did Latin music begin to enter the United States?
Latin American music has influenced American music, starting from jazz to country music. Many bands added congas, percussion, or maracas to their instruments as they were drawn to the result these elements brought.
Starting in 1940, the music of Latin America, which still did not have a specific term, covered a greater number of audiences in the United States; international radio networks broadcast different themes of the time. In addition, they featured different Mexican bolero musicians such as Alfredo Antonini, Néstor Mesta Chayres, Eva Garza and Juan Arvizu. In the 1940s the US also heard the “Calypso” with great acceptance.
It was not until the 1950s that the term “Latin music” became popular, seeking to establish a difference between Afro-American and Afro-Latin American rhythms. Some artists marked this musical fusion to a greater extent, making the best of Latin music known on American soil. During the 1950s, music brought to the north from the island of Cuba, such as mambo, cha-cha, and rumba, was very popular. As well as the famous Mexican songs: rancheras and mariachis.
Some Latino artists who marked the history of Latin music in the United States Tito Puente was an American percussionist with Dominican origins remembered for his participation in worldwide jazz, Cuban music and salsa. In 1950 he helped promote the genre of mambo and cha-cha. His album “Dance Manía” was considered the most famous by the artist, it was one of the most heard among the Latino community in the US The album also set a precedent by being recorded in Spanish, generally, Latin albums were in English or with instrumental songs. It was Tito Puente who broke with this tradition.
At the beginning of the 20th century, tango touched American soil. Then, in the 70s, the Argentine Astor Piazzolla gave something to talk about by demonstrating his passion for the genre and revolutionizing what was known until that moment. Piazzolla was born in Mar de Plata but lived in New York from a very young age. It definitely changed the way of looking at music that was long marginalized, it was considered the music of the working class. The singer made mixtures between tango, jazz and contemporary classical music. His songs were a great success and were famous in bars of the time.
It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that the term “salsa” began to become known. Afro-Caribbean musicians mixed Cuban dance with influences from jazz, Caribbean music, and American rhythms. Although in previous decades it had already had its beginnings, it was in the streets of New York where it was consolidated as a commercial success.
Celia Cruz and Tito Puente – Latin music
Salsa launched artists who are now legends to stardom, such as: Celia Cruz, Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Rubén Blades, Johnny Pacheco, among others.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, Dominican immigrants to the United States continued, especially to New York City, and promoted genres such as merengue and bachata. Juan Luis Guerra was one of the great exponents of both styles.
In the 90s, Selena mixed the Texan aesthetic with pop, giving her the title of the highest representative of the genre.
Entering the 2000s
In this decade, Latin rhythms continued to set the trend. Singers like Rubén Blades returned with songs that promised to be hits in the country.
At the end of 1999 Marc Anthony surprised his followers with an album of the same name. Although he was already known in the salsa genre, he decided to try other styles. With the intention of reaching the Anglo market, he is encouraged to sing in English. “I Need To Know” is a cha-cha song that quickly became popular in the United States. For eleven weeks it remained in the top North American positions, ranking in the Top 10 on the Billboard. The Spanish version won the Grammy for the best Latin song of the year 2000.
Marc Anthony was one of the artists who marked this decade in the US That same year a compilation of his best salsa songs went on sale, which he called: “Desde el principio”. With these successes to his credit within this country, he set out to make an important tour of the United States. Canada and Central America. Madison Square Garden in New York was overflowing with fans who wanted to hear this American singer but who positioned himself as the leader of a Latin genre.
Marc Anthony
The opening of “I Need To Know” appeared in the Nissan Versa commercial in the United States and in 2009 it also featured in an American Dad chapter, an American television series; thus giving greater projection to this genre throughout the North American territory.
During this decade, salsa and Latin music in general ended up positioning themselves in the United States.
In 2002 Blades launched his album “Mundo”, becoming one of the most popular in the United States. In fact, it won a Grammy. The album contained a mix of various rhythms and instruments. The artist wanted to create a fusion of cultures and musicians from different countries. “Estampa” was a subject with great acceptance as it evoked the Afro-Cuban influence in New York music.
By the year 2000, there were already music channels and with them the projection of emerging talents who in many cases did not speak the English language. The dynamics of these channels focused on the public, who chose which songs and videos were to be played, giving the opportunity to many young, little-known artists. They were also considered a springboard for the singers of the season and the Latin movement in general.
A movement that is here to stay
Latin music had come to continue making history and it was time to give it greater merit within the American spectacle.
Today, Latin singers, songwriters, and bands are innumerable. Latin music continues to gain space in the United States and more and more artists are achieving success within its borders. In addition, the endless awards that enhance their work in the industry.
Ruben Blades – Mundo
The consumption of these musical rhythms has increased throughout the American territory. Latinos and followers of this genre have gained space over the years; they can enjoy nightspots, live music, festivals, concerts and much more. Long live Latin America and its people! Long live the United States and the countries that have opened their doors to Latin music
